August Currently--ALREADY!?!

Is it really August already? Where has the summer gone?! I have done so much. I have moved to a new city, moved my classroom, and experienced a lot of family issues. I need a vacation from my vacation! But, I am ready to get set up in my new classroom. I haven't seen it yet, but I am very excited :)

I am linking up with Farley from Oh' Boy 4th Grade for the August Currently.

Now for my Back-to-School must haves:
1. My Macbook- I have worked hard this summer to get a lot of my files organized and ready for the new school year. Before, I had everything organized by unit that connected with my old curriculum. I also had files that were just not organized at all! It was a mess. Now, I have all of my files organized by skill and ready for my new grade level!

2. New Classroom Decor- Now that I am not only in a new classroom, but also in a new school, I wanted to change my classroom decor. So, I connected with Amanda from One Extra Degree and gave her an idea of what I liked. She went above and beyond with my new classroom decor!

3. WBT Videos- Over the last two years I have learned bits and pieces of Whole Brain Teaching. After the conference I went to in May, I connected with one of the WBT mentors and asked for help in launching WBT in my classroom. They directed me to their livestream. I started watching Coach B's videos on how to do WBT the first hour, first day, and first week of school. If you are interested in the WBT videos, go to this website:

http://www.livestream.com/wholebrainteaching1/folder

I am also using their book Whole Brain Teaching for Challenging Students to help with my classroom management next year. If you want a copy of the book, go here.

Okay everyone, good luck with setting up your classrooms and getting ready for the new school year! I will be posting pictures next week of my classroom set-up. I have a long process because I have to move everything out of storage, move it to my classroom, unpack, and set up! It's going to be a busy couple of weeks. I hope I can squeeze in a little mini vacation. 

What a Year...and a currently

When I started this blog, I wanted to share all of the wonderful ideas and lessons I try out in my classroom. That was the plan; however, sometimes...life happens.

I started doing a lot with my dance company. I started dancing 3 days a week and started doing tap again.

I'm the tapper in the pink sweater! This is my Golden Girls tap routine. It was hilarious!!

Also, in November, my commute went from 10 minutes, to over 30 minutes each way. By the time I got home...I was exhausted. In addition to moving, we also got an adorable puppy, Trigger. He is just a bundle of joy!

In addition to everything else, I had a death in my family. Around September, my Nana started to become very ill. She passed this past November. Here is a picture of my Nana, Papa, and me when I was just born.

But, within everything that happened this year, I also had some beautiful additions. Such as my wonderful niece, Emma Fay who is one of the most beautiful babies I have ever seen!

So, here is my currently for June!

I am going to try and do some posts about the different units and strategies I have been doing this year that are amazing. I've been trying to use some Common Core strategies that were very successful with my class.

Better Late Than Never...September Currently

Wow, I can't believe how busy these past two weeks have been! I just wanted to do a quick post for Farley's September Currently. I always love doing these! Although, I posted this one a little bit later than I normally do. The first two weeks of school have been so busy! I'm really excited for my next couple of blog posts and can't wait to share what I have been doing so far with my little kiddos! We have been doing a lot of community building, schema, vocabulary, and science activities. I'll be posting more next week sharing the first couple of weeks activities.

Now, on to the fun stuff. Here is my linky with Farley's Currently.

Now, I'm off to bed. I have a VERY busy day tomorrow! Happy Teaching everyone!

August Currently

It's time to link up with Farley from Oh' Boy 4th Grade for the August Currently. I always look forward to doing this each month.

I talked a little bit in my Currently about implementing CAFE into my classroom this year. I've been researching this summer about CAFE and how it helps students with comprehension. Now, I need to connect it with my school's ELA curriculum, which is a little challenging. I started planning the comprehension, now I need to work on accuracy, fluency and expanding vocabulary. I LOVE teaching vocabulary and my students did an amazing job last year with my GLAD vocabulary charts. We also did a lot of fluency by doing 1 minute daily fluency practices. What I need to do is connect the CAFE strategies to the various comprehension, vocabulary, and fluency activities in my class. I'm going into my classroom next week, and I think that once I put it all together and start using the CAFE strategies with the curriculum, it will be a lot easier.I'll do a post as soon as I get my focus walls up! This will be my first year using CAFE, so I will be blogging about my first year Daily CAFE journey :)

Now, for the B2S essentials! I REALLY need more storage containers for my math and ELA activities. Amanda Nickerson did a post about how she organized her classroom activities and supplies. This gave me a lot of ideas about how I need to organize a lot of my activities. Over the past year, I have collected a lot of supplemental activities for teaching ELA and math. I want a better way to keep the activities organized.

Also, with my apple and tree theme for my class, I need to work on my classroom decor!

Lastly, I need a paper cutter for my classroom. I was fortunate enough to be working next to Dani from It's Grow Time. With her now back in Southern Cali, I need to invest in buying my own.

So, my goals for the remainder of the summer: complete my long-term planning for ELA and math, set up classroom jobs, plan my focus walls, and finish connecting CAFE to the ELA curriculum. There are 3 weeks left! I think I can do it :)

My first "Currently"

So, this is my VERY first "Currently," and I HOPE that I did this right. I linked up with Oh' Boy 4th Grade

Happy Monday everyone! I'm on my way to Orange County tomorrow! I'm ready for some sunshine and family time :) Wow, that rhymes!

Jessie